


harry styles and the notecards

by nouiszouis



Series: Monthshots! [17]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Cheesy, Coffe shop AU, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Pining, also sort of cafe au, zouis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 08:17:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1737692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nouiszouis/pseuds/nouiszouis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>louis and zayn visit a certain cafe a lot and when louis takes a particular interest in the new worker, he ends up with all he's ever dreamed of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	harry styles and the notecards

**Author's Note:**

> day 18 of 'monthshots'!
> 
> writing this was like pulling teeth, but i did it aaannddd it's short but i hope it's good yeah.
> 
> based off of [this](https://31.media.tumblr.com/0e984ca9590d55c509c9c3c723dd3d6b/tumblr_n6mc1uRqT41sn3qwuo1_500.jpg) lovely prompt.
> 
> title is from that one song by that band.

"You know, sometimes I wish my life were an eighties movie," Louis mumbles through a mouthful of ham and cheese panini. "Full on rom-com with at least one montage scene."

"Too bad it's 2014 and all we have now are terrible remakes of already shitty classics," Zayn says plainly.

They're sitting at a table in some bistro called Allic's that's down the street from their flat, a semi-daily routine that they sometimes choose to skip if they're too high, broke, or busy to go out. Zayn's halfway finished with his salad and Louis is only a few bites into his sandwich, too busy talking rather than chewing.

"Hey, the classics aren't shitty, you're just too against anything that's even remotely mainstream," Louis quips.

"No, I enjoy plenty of mainstream things, thank you. The fact that I don't like eighties classics has absolutely nothing to do with that. I just believe that they're too cliche and all have too similar plots to be placed on such a high pedestal."

Louis grabs his cup and takes a slow sip of his tea, making the situation seem more dramatic. Zayn just rolls his eyes and stuffs another fork full of lettuce into his mouth.

"The Breakfast Club and, like, Clueless don't have the same plot," Louis tells him.

"But they both have a preppy rich girl in them," Zayn notes.

"Oh, come on, you're making shit up now," Louis says, exasperated.

Zayn shrugs with a small smirk and continues eating, not continuing their debate any longer. It gives Louis a chance to actually eat his own meal, his panini a little cold now and the cheese not melting in his mouth like it's supposed to.

He takes a bite of it and chews it savoringly, looking around at the restaurant rather than staring down at his plate or across at Zayn. The place is quite cute with it's curtained windows and door that dings when someone comes in. It's decorated nice too, having simple abstract paintings and old photographs scattered across the wall, tables made of glossed mahogany with little candles sitting in the middle.

There's also a decent looking guy working behind the counter too that Louis doesn't recognize. He's definitely the best decoration they've got in the place with his dark curly hair and tanned skin and surprisingly when Louis takes a good look at him, the boy glances over at the same time and _blushes._ Louis scrunches his eyebrows, silent confusion taking over him because they've never even met before so how is this guy getting flustered from just one glance?

"Zayn, that kid's looking at me," Louis tells Zayn wearily.

"You sure you didn't look at him first?" Zayn asks.

"Yeah, I just looked over and he's starin' at me," Louis lies, chewing on another bite. "I mean, he's not bad looking, but I don't want 'im to see me with half a tomato hanging out of my mouth or cheese halfway up my face."

“You’re good enough looking that I’m sure he wouldn’t care anyways,” Zayn says with a cheesy smile.

“Thank you, that means a lot Zayn. I’m glad you think I’m such a diamond to the eye, but still confused why you wouldn’t go out with me a year ago, then,” Louis remarks.

“Because you knew it would’ve been awkward and the only reason you asked me out anyways was because you wanted a good fuck and were too lazy to go out to a club.” He’s got Louis there.

“I had to do what I had to do since you’re one of those sick people that doesn’t believe in friends with benefits,” Louis shrugs.

Zayn looks at him and rolls his eyes - something he does a lot to Louis because he’s repeatedly obnoxious - and finishes off the last bit of his salad with a huge bite. Behind him, the boy is still looking over at Louis and Louis can’t tell if he took a break or if he’s just had a permanent lock on him.

When he sees Louis looking back at him, the boy looks down once again, continuing to do whatever job he has behind the counter. It turns out that he’s sorting out different deserts to put in the display in the front of counter. Louis watches him swap out a slice of chocolate cake for a brownie, a bowl of fruit for some pie, changing things around that looked fine where they were in the first place.

“Jesus, Louis, how long does it take you to finish one sandwich?” Zayn asks incredulously.

“Fuck off,” Louis returns, throwing a bit of lettuce at him and avoiding looking back at curly boy.

-

The next time they come to the bistro a week later, it’s raining and the tables are all mostly empty. Normally you can’t hear the quiet music playing in the back kitchen, but today without the additional chatter of everyone’s voices, you can softly hear some popular songs floating into the dining area.

“One blueberry muffin, a medium sized bowl of fruit, and two cups of tea, both with just a bit of sugar in them,” Zayn tells the boy that was staring at Louis last week since Louis refused to go up and talk to him.

Instead, he sits at a table by the window and watches Zayn talk to him with curious eyes, waiting for the answer to what his name is (if Zayn does his job properly). Today, the boy has a blue headscarf wrapped around his hair, pushing it back and making it seem a lot more voluminous and messy than it was last time. 

It seems to take ages for Zayn to order until finally he nods and starts walking back over to Louis with a small smile on his face.

“What’s his name?” Louis asks quickly, leaning forward in his chair as Zayn sits down across from him.

“Tell me you love me first,” Zayn proposes and Louis glares.

“I love you, Zayn Jabberwocky Malik,” Louis says, placing his hand over his heart. He used to call Zayn that when they were younger because they read a poem called _Jabberwocky_ in English and it fit too well with Zayn’s name to be ignored.

“You fucking prick, you’re never going to let go of that, are you?” Zayn asks him.

“Nope,” Louis replies with a devilish smile. “Now tell me the boy’s name, won’t you.”

Zayn sighs and looks up at Louis for a second. "Harry. His name's Harry."

"Ah, Harry, what I nice name for a creepy stalker boy. I’m gonna go talk to him,” Louis boasts, pushing his chair back against Zayn’s statement of protest.

He saunters straight up to the counter and watches as Harry stirs their cups of tea. Next, he watches Harry carefully choose a muffin and fruit cup from the cold display, his hands roaming over different ones like he’s trying to find the best rather than just grab the first one he can reach.

Once Harry’s got everything ready, he goes to place them all on the main counter and finally catches sight of Louis, nearly dropping the cups when Louis smiles brightly.

“Hello, Harry,” Louis says without thinking.

“Oh, hi, um. My name? I mean, how do you know it. My name I mean,” Harry rambles out and Louis wants to reach out and reassure him that he’s not going to bite his limbs off or something.

“Zayn, that guy who ordered before, told me it was your name. Sorry, that did sound a bit odd since we’ve never talked,” Louis admits.

Harry just stays still and sort of looks like he’s about to pass out but then cracks a small smile and breathers again. His smile is nice, too, which is definitely one of the few things going for him so far.

“It’s fine, I mean I know your name too,” Harry says.

“What is it?” Louis questions, raising an eyebrow.

“Louis,” Harry answers quietly.

“How d’you know that?”

“That guy told me earlier.” Harry pulls his lips into his mouth and looks at Louis like a scared puppy.

“ _Zayn,_ ” Louis mutters under his breath because he wasn’t supposed to say anything more than _‘Hey, what’s your name? My completely anonymous friend is wondering.’_ “So do you have our breakfast?”

Harry stares at him blankly for a second before releasing his lips and sliding the plates and cups forward quickly. “Here, sorry. I got distracted.”

“Don’t worry, I can’t say anything when I’m technically the one who was distracting you anyways,” Louis smiles.

He reaches forward and grabs the two cups by the handles, the plate balanced on his forearm. It’ll be a miracle if he doesn’t drop anything, but he needs to show off in front of cute boys that possibly like him because it’s fun to be a tease.

“Have a good rest of the day!” Louis exclaims as he starts turning to walk away.

He doesn’t bother to look behind him and see Harry blushing and smiling like a schoolgirl who just got called cool by her crush, but Zayn sees and tries to hold back a knowing smirk when Louis comes back over to the table and starts singing a made up song about muffins and tea.

-

Within the next two weeks, they visit and Louis makes a game out of teasing Harry whether it’s ordering blueberry coffee or half of a banana muffin and half chocolate. He always likes the way Harry does whatever ridiculous thing he says, like he’s trying hard to impress Louis.

It is a bit like he’s taking advantage of him but he chooses not to look at it that way because taking advantage of people s wrong but having fun is completely acceptable. Zayn doesn’t agree.

“That poor kid would spit on your shoes and clean them with his bare hands if you asked,” Zayn sighs. “Don’t you think that’s a bit sad?”

“It’s not sad,” Louis scoffs, looking away from where Harry is doing something behind the counter and back to Zayn who’s sitting across from him. “It’s flattering.”

“You taking advantage of him is not flattering,” Zayn scolds, raising an eyebrows at Louis.

“Now, that’s not what I’m doing. I’m just- no, yeah that’s exactly what I’m doing, but he doesn’t _care_ so it doesn’t matter,” Louis reasons.

He turns his head to the side to look at Harry again and for once, the boy isn’t looking back at him. Normally it’s like he can sense Louis’ eyes and automatically glances up, but he seems to be fixed on doing something at the moment. 

“Whatever you say,” he hears Zayn say and turns back around with a frown. “Why are you frowning?”

“He’s not looking at me, he almost always is,” Louis says shocked.

“You do know he has an actual job, right? He doesn’t get paid to stare at you longingly all day long,” Zayn tells him and casually sips his coffee.

“Shove off, of course I know that, I’ve just gotten used to the constant attention.”

Zayn looks off somewhere behind Louis and starts grinning without Louis even noticing. He just clears his throat and tries to hold in a laugh. “Your constant source of attention is walking over here.”

Hearing this, Louis snaps his head around _again_ and with all of this turning he thinks he might break his neck. Harry is in fact walking over to their table, though, and he’s got some sort of paper in his hands, like a stack of notecards, but there’s no reason he’d have notecards.

He steps closer until he’s right in front of Louis, looking down at him since they’re at completely different levels. Louis meets his eye and Harry opens his mouth then clears his throat, looking down at the papers in his hands that are most definitely notecards that you’d use to study in school.

“Hi, Louis,” he starts with a shaky smile. He looks like he might pass out or something and Louis feels bad because the boy’s so shy and timid, so he just softly smiles and returns the greeting.

“Hello, Harry,” he draws out, ignoring Zayn’s snort from across the table.

He watches as Harry licks over his bottom lip and looks down at the cards. Then it hits him: Harry’s reading off of the cards. He fucking wrote down what he’s about to say and God help Louis because he might have a heart attack.

“Um, I just wanted to say you’re really amazing. Like, you come in here and the place, you know, lights up and stuff,” Harry gets out awkwardly, looking down at his shoes and then back at the cards again.

“I don’t know if you feel the same, but I like you a lot. Your face is berry- no, wait, beat-” he stutters and pauses, scrunching his face up in confusion, bringing the note closer to his face. “Beautiful! Sorry, I have weird handwriting. You don’t care but, yeah. Sorry about that.”

The whole moment is awkward yet somehow so cliche and absolutely adorable, and Louis can’t stop himself from smiling. He looks over at Zayn and he just shrugs and pulls his lips in to hold back a laugh still.

“That’s sweet of you, Harry. You’re pretty decent yourself,” Louis tells him genuinely.

Harry looks him in the eyes finally and they’re bright green and full of surprise, like he hadn’t expected Louis to say anything. His lips pull up into a smile nevertheless and he clears his throat softly before continuing. It’s Louis’ turn to be surprised.

“I know we’ve only talked a few times and you probably don’t like me as more than an acquaintance, but I was-” And then he drops the cards.

They all fly out of his hands as he goes to shuffle to the next one and he let’s out a soft gasp. Some fall onto the ground and others float and spin through the air, landing in Louis’ lap or on top of the table. Harry’s cheeks flush bright red and he scrambles to pick them up off the ground, leaving Zayn and Louis to look at each other with amused expressions.

When he stands back up, Louis hands over the cards from the table and Harry says a small thank you to him. He situates them in his hands and tries to find his place, but eventually get’s frustrated and starts huffing, hissing when he cuts one of his fingers.

“You’re cute with those cards, you know,” Louis observes. “The kind of cute I’d want to absolutely destroy in bed.”

“Louis!” Zayn exclaims with wide eyes.

Harry seems to have lost all oxygen flow to his face and just opens his mouth to try to speak, not getting anything out. He’s looking around from his shoes back to Louis then down again, circling his fingers around his left rest and swinging his arms a little.

“I, uh, don’t have cards for that,” he admits with a laugh.

Louis cackles at that and even Zayn let’s out a snort. “Don’t worry, your expression says everything.”

Harry grins to the point that his dimples show and Louis looks at them with fondness in his eyes, waiting for Harry to say something more when he remembers the cut off statement from before. “Harry, what were you gonna say when you dropped the cards?”

This seems to get all of the oxygen and blood flowing again. Harry cocks his head to the side and let’s out a small laugh through his nose, looking down bashfully at the boots on his feet.

“I was going to ask if you wanted to go on a.. date? I mean, you don’t have to because of course I’ve completely embarrassed myself now, but the offer’s still there. Only if you want. I just want to get to know you better, if that’s not creepy,” Harry starts babbling on, basically talking to himself.

“No, shut up, I’d love to. You seem like a fun time.” Louis answers with a prize winning smile and eyes Zayn when he hears an iPhone camera noise.

“Hey, someone’s gotta get pictures to show at your wedding reception,” Zayn says smugly and if Louis could reach, he’d whack him in the head.

Harry’s still standing in shock when Lous looks back up at him, so he gives a gentle nudge Harry’s shin with his foot. It break him from his daze and immediately a huge smile lights up his entire face like he just got told he won a million dollars.

“Wow, that’s awesome,” Harry says. He then grabs one of the notecards from the stack and holds it out to Louis. “It has my number on it. I wasn’t expecting you to say yes, but I was prepared just in case.”

Louis takes it cautiously and sure enough, it’s got his number scrawled on it along with a drawing of a little cup of tea, about the size of the small doodle tattoos he’s got on his right arm. Before he can respond anything else, Harry’s name is being called out from the front and he’s being prompted to get back behind the counter.

“I’ll text you,” Louis assures him when Harry says ‘coming!’ and starts slowly backing away. 

“Alright, talk to you later then,” Harry smiles before turning fully around and sauntering back over to the front to where his boss is standing waiting for him.

When he’s gone back in the kitchen area, Louis turns to Zayn and waves the card on his face like a fan. Zayn grins and pops his lips, looking at Louis with an unreadable expression.

“Looks like you finally got to live in an cheesy eighties movie finally,” he tells Louis, moving his head around as he says it.

Louis thinks it over for a moment and then realizes that Zayn’s right. They were talking about that subject a few weeks back and here they are now, stuck right in the middle of a rom-com film where someone does something cheesy and unpredictable for the main character to pronounce their love.

“God, that’s fucking _sick_.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you guys liked it.. comments and kudos ARE appreciated!
> 
> if you wanna talk to me i'm strong on ao3, @daddyhair on twitter, and louwie on tumblr


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